What do you see when you think of a million-dollar house? Separate quarters for the servants, or perhaps a roomy coach house out back? An indoor swimming pool? An opulent dining room with a 50-foot oak table and high, gilt-rimmed ceiling? Six or eight lavish bedrooms?

Guess again.

A million bucks used to be a lot of money. But according to Realtors and builders, a million dollars no longer goes very far for new construction in Chicago’s lakefront neighborhoods, from the Gold Coast to prime blocks of Lakeview East.

In dense, developed neighborhoods, the kind where million-dollar houses tend to get built, available land has become so scarce during the current real estate boom, and demand so high, that vacant lots alone can cost upwards of half a million dollars.

"In Lincoln Park, land prices have gotten totally out of hand," says Marcel Freides, of architect / builder Freides & Cassagrande. "Right now, they have reached $600,000 for a 25-foot lot. I used to think Aspen was the only place where you couldn’t find a house for a million dollars. Now, new houses in Lincoln Park are priced from $1.4 million to infinity. There’s no such thing as a million-dollar house anymore."

Add the high costs of labor and materials to exorbitant property costs, not to mention the builder’s profit, and a million can start to sound like chump change. And that’s exactly how more Chicagoans than ever before think of seven figures. A ballooning stock market and the longest peace-time expansion of the economy ever have, to put it simply, made a lot of people a lot of money. Not only has a million dollars become the low end for a new house in some neighborhoods, buyers are scrambling to buy the ones priced at $1.5 million and higher.

During the first six months of 1999, the Chicago Association of Realtors recorded 51 single-family home transactions in the city priced above $1 million, with an average sales price of $1,449,787. The number of transactions and average price is comparable to figures from the previous year, but the amount of time such homes spent on the market was nearly cut in half, to 67 days in 1999, from 122 days during 1998.

"The numbers are about the same, but high-end homes are selling much faster," says James Kinney, managing broker at Rubloff Residential Realty. "We used to figure a year or two to sell something at that price point, but not anymore. We’ve had a couple of instances where we had people change their minds for one reason or another. There was a $1.4 million unit at the Water Tower, where, at the closing, they decided they were not getting married anymore. The unit sold the next day for $1.65 million."

Kinney sees the luxury market continuing to grow in the city as downtown Chicago becomes a popular place to live.

Well, the answer, of course, depends on location. In outlying areas, where land is cheap, it will get you something spectacular, but no one has thought of building mansions in Jefferson Park or Clearing. In ritzier lakefront neighborhoods, $1 million is often not enough for the right new home.

"A million dollars is not going to get you a house with all the appointments you typically want in that price bracket," says John Zitzman, of JFJ Development Company. "It won’t get you brick all around the house, limestone, a wine cellar, a prewired sound system, a home theater. The price is closer to $2 million now for that type of house."

So, what is the "new high end?"

Joanne Nemerovski, a Koenig & Strey sales agent who won an award from Sotheby’s for selling more houses priced at $1 million or more than anyone else in the company, recently sold out a boutique condo building at 2120 Lincoln Park West. Prices started at more than $1 million for unfinished space in the 12-unit building and rose into the $3.5 million range. Each unit takes up an entire floor, and some buyers still purchased a floor and a half or two floors. The standards include things like heated marbled floors in master bathrooms, a choice of hardwood floors inside, Jacuzzi tubs, steam rooms, and three zones of heat and air conditioning.

Raw penthouse space for units of 8,300 square feet at the new Park Tower, a 67-story highrise at 800 N. Michigan Ave., started at $3.4 million. In addition to every standard highrise amenity and complete freedom for buyers to build out their space, the project includes a 19-story Park Hyatt Hotel as a base and services ranging from an indoor swimming pool and spa to a gourmet restaurant and room service.

"The building offers a product unlike anything else on the market," says Laura Molk, of LR Realty, which is marketing the project. "Once you’re looking at the top, people want the best, and buildings like this only come along every 10 years or so."

JFJ Development currently has a 5,700-square-foot house underway at 1919 N. Kenmore for $1.78 million. The home has a conservatory with a roof deck on top of the house, four baths, four bedrooms and an in-law suite. The master bath has an oversized Jacuzzi, a double-headed steam shower and a separate granite vanity. The kitchen includes Subzero appliances, handmade cabinets, an oversized commercial range and two dishwashers - a must for entertaining, according to the developer. The basement contains a home theater.

One thing the house on Kenmore does not have is a large yard. Few new high-end houses in the city do. Buyers at the highest price point tend to want as much house as they can possibly fit onto narrow city lots and are willing to sacrifice green space to get it. Multiple decks, sometimes spanning a massive amount of square footage, offer plenty of compensation.

Bert Connolly, of Wescon Builders, recently sold a new house at 1818 N. Burling. The 5,700-square-foot home had all the bells and whistles, from handmade cherry kitchen cabinets to four decks and an oversized shower in the master bath that included a steam shower, body sprays, wall spray and a handheld spray, all high-end Grohe fixtures. The home was nearly complete when it was purchased, Connolly says, and buyers were happy with the pre-chosen finishes.

Many developers, including Freides, say they will not build such luxury housing "on spec," or without a buyer in line. Apart from the obvious risk, buyers at the highest end tend to want more control over their finishes and even floor plans - and have the money to get what they want.

"For the last five or six years, we have found properties and custom built homes for people," Freides says, noting that each prime lot might have three or four bidders.

The ability to find land in neighborhoods like Lincoln Park has become a lucrative talent. Koenig & Strey sales agent Sean Conlon, for example, has become involved from that angle, bringing available lots to builders and making deals happen. In a market where lots can literally be snatched up in minutes buyers virtually have to deal with an experienced real estate agent or a builder with a thorough knowledge of the neighborhood.

What advice do such experts have for buyers with a million bucks - or two - to spend on a new house? If such buyers are purchasing "off plans" before the house has actually been built, they should be vigilant about checking into the reputation of the builder and viewing previous projects. If working with a broker, they should choose someone who they trust and consider hardworking, but also someone with a deep, block-by-block knowledge of the neighborhood in which they want to live. Buyers also should regularly drive or walk the blocks they like. Many of the small, upscale builders doing high-end homes along the lake do little or know advertising beyond site signs.